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Congress' Tail Wags BJP's Bulky Body !

And the outcome of the just concluded
elections is that the improved fortunes of the Congress is having a profound influence on the
attitude of the BJP in Gujarat.

Gujarat BJP leaders who had lost their
larynx during the decade and a quarter long Narendra Modi rule in Gujarat have
found their voice after the polls. The first ‘presentation’ came when deputy
chief minister Nitin Patel demonstrated the strength of his vocals after BJP
chief Amit Shah sought to hollow out his power entrails while leaving the
deputy chief ministerial hardcover intact.

BJP leaders fondly relate how Congress
in Gujarat is remote controlled from Delhi. That the BJP is walking the same
beaten track became evident from the pitiable plight of chief minister Vijay Rupani and his
entire cabinet sworn December 26 and made to wait for the next two days for the
allocation of portfolios, a process which normally takes just a few hours after
swearing-in.

Why? The Prime Minister was busy with
the triple talaq Bill in Parliament and with party chief Amit Shah,also similarly
engaged , Gujarat was put on hold. It
was state party chief Jitu Vaghani, now
a minister who let the cat out of the bag when he said that the cabinet meeting
here was delayed because of the ongoing Parliament meeting. The cabinet
meeting, called for the purpose kept waiting into the night before the
portfolios were cleared from Delhi.

Thereafter, all hell broke loose. The
deputy chief minister Nitin Patel had harsh words to say to the chief minister.
And for obvious reasons.

Patel,in the new allotments, found
himself being stripped off three key portfolios of Finance, Urban Development
and Petroleum and instead been given Health, Roads and Buildings besides
projects like medical education, Kalpasar and Capital projects. Patel termed it
a matter of his honour and refused to join. According to him, Finance is a portfolio
kept by the Number two in the cabinet. In this case it had been given to
Saurabh Patel while Chief Minister Vijay Rupani kept Urban Development with
himself. Nitin saw this as a move to cut him to size and reacted harshly, refusing
to take charge.

Modi and Amit Shah’s BJP would hardly
bother. But soon Patidar Anamat Andolan Samiti(PAAS) leader Hardik Patel waded
into the controversy and so did the rejuvenated Gujarat Congress.””If BJP does
not respect him, Nitin Patel should leave the party. We will talk with Congress
so that he regains his prestige”, said Hardik. Chimed in Congress leader Virji
Thummar”, If he joins the Congress with ten legislators, we will make him the
chief minister”. Soon after three senior ministers were at the doorstep of
Nitin Patel and so were RSS prant pracharak, Chintan Upadhayay and Sangh leader
Hasmukh Patel for an hour long closed door meeting. And the Finance portfolio
was restored to Nitin Patel.

The behind –the-scenes-story is that
Shah had planned Nitin Patel’s wing clipping. In fact, the hope was that Patel
would lose the election in view of the PAAS pique against him. So it was
decided to resurrect Saurabh Patel, a minister who all along handled petroleum,
even finance through the Modi years but was dropped when Rupani was inducted Chief
Minister to replace Anandiben Patel in 2016. Saurabh is the son-in-law of
Reliance Baron late Dhirubhai Ambani’s brother Ramnik Ambani. The Gujarat State
Petroleum Corporation(GSPC)came under a cloud during Modi rule with it’s
accumulated debt of Rs 20,000 crores and complete inability to deliver any gas
from it’s KG basin discovery announced by Modi himself as carrying reserves of
20 trillion cubic feet(TCF). The largest ever find by an indian company proved
to be a hoax. With the CAG venting it’s mind on the subject GSPC, now sought to
be ‘parceled off’ to the ONGC, can prove to be a major embarrassment to the
present Prime Minister who was then the Chief Minister. Saurabh, who was all
along the minister-in-charge, would be the inevitable guy in the front when
push comes to shove.

Another former minister who failed to
make it to the cabinet despite being elected from Porbandar defeating Congress
leader Arjun Modvadia is Babubhai Bokharia. He had been retained in the cabinet
despite being convicted earlier though subsequently cleared but was left out
this time. The man, had fallen from BJP chief Amit Shah’s grace. Instead, it
was ‘Godmother’s son Kandhal Jadeja, a
NCP legislator from Kutiyana who is being showered with affection ignoring his
criminal antecedents for sheer caste calculations. Kandhal defied a NCP whip
and voted for the BJP against Ahmed Patel in the last Rajya Sabha elections.

Nitin’s show of defiance against Shah
will rank as the first such case in the last decade which has forced the BJP
top brass (Read Shah-Modi) to back off and restore the finance portfolio to the
deputy chief minister. The last such case was when former minister Gordhan
Jhadapia who was dropped by Chief Minister Modi , post-2002 refused a cabinet
berth at the swearing-in ceremony on August 1,2005.

It has nevertheless opened a pandora’s
box with all manner of elected
legislators and even ministers openly venting their spleen. Purshottam Solanki flexed his koli community
muscle stating that being made minister of state for fisheries was hardly in
keeping with the stature of a five times elected legislator.”The chief minister
keeps 12 portfolios with him. I deserve a better one too”, he was quoted as
saying, even as he organized a demonstration in his own support within the
ministerial enclave and boycotted the cabinet meeting. Others followed suit.
One time constable Jetha Bharvad, Yogesh Patel left out of the cabinet, were
among those who joined the clamour taking BJP chief Amit Shah by surprise with
the sheer intensity of the eruptions. For the moment, the BJP top brass has
sought to buy time promising a reshuffle and is considering appointing
parliamentary secretaries to provide the perks of power to a larger number but this
has it’s own attendant problems.

The fact is that the new found muscle
flexing within the BJP, the deputy chief minister’s defiance included, owes
much to the Congress’ renewed vigour in the state and it’s new emerging, impertinent
youth order which is more than ready to match the ruling party blow for blow in
a slugfest. Following the defeat of the Gujarat Congress top four- Shaktisinh
Gohil, Arjun Modvadia, Siddarth Patel and Tushar Chaudhary- and state party
chief Bharatsinh Solanki not contesting the elections, 41 year old Paresh
Dhanani, a patidar youth is the new leader of the Congress opposition in the
Vidhan Sabha. With the force multiplier triad of OBC leader Alpesh Thakore and dalit leader
Jignesh Mewani already in the Assembly and Patidar leader Hardik Patel making
known his opposition to the BJP, the emerging youth leadership of the re-inforced
Congress in Gujarat is set to give the fractious ruling BJP a run for it’s
money.

Like it or not, but it is the Congress’
turbo-charged tail which has begun wagging the BJP’s bulky body in Gujarat !.

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